Cleverley made his comeback when he beat Juergen Braehmer to clinch the WBA title back in October 2016. Prior to this title fight, he had been beaten by Andrzej Fonfara in a highly competitive fight which became listed as one of the contenders for fight of the year in 2015. Cleverly has a pretty solid record so far at 30 – 3. Of these 30 wins, 16 of them have come through knockouts. Let us make it abundantly clear that Cleverly has not been fighting any tom, dick and harry. He has come up against high quality fighters and beaten the likes of Tony Bellew, Nadjib Mohammedi, Shawn Hawk, and Tommy Karpency. This will be the Welshman’s fourth time fighting in the United States.
Cleverly said in an interview that he has been wanting to challenge and take on Badou Jack ever since the latter made a move to the light heavyweight division. He also remarked that he was delighted that he is getting showcase his talent in an arena such as the one in Las Vegas on the same night as the highly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. In his interview, Cleverley seemed almost over confident and stated that he had been training long and hard for this fight and that he had no doubts in his mind that he was going to send Badou packing.
Badou on the other hand is motivated by the fact that if he is to beat Cleverly come August 26th, he will be the new light heavyweight champion. Badou is 33 years of age and his current form has really been on point with him being unbeaten in his last six outings and is certainly not low on confidence himself.
His training has changed significantly since he moved down a weight class, he has been focusing on building muscle and polishing his boxings technique. Badou even stated in his own interview that he foresees no issues in the upcoming fight and that Cleverly is not going to be taking the belt, it is going to stay right here in Las Vegas.
While this is sure to be a fight that can go either way, we will go with Badou Jack for our pick, he is just technically more sound.